Because aerospace often involves frequent engineering model changes, the ability to modify a fixture in hours—rather than building a new one over weeks—is a major competitive advantage.
When asking a few of my favorite friends and colleagues about whether a CMM holding or checking fixture should be made by traditional welded base plates with common clamping methods versus a modular fixturing system, I tried very hard not to be “partisan” about the fixturing needs for manufacturing everything from rocket engines to automobiles.
CMMs have been in the industry since the ‘70s and historically had an untrusted stigma. Because of their time in the industry and their continued evolution, that’s changed.
“The biggest challenge with CMMs is that they are CMMs. They have been in the industry for a very long time and typically have a negative connotation about them.
The probe stylus is the key component in the successful utilization of the CMM. The ease of availability and lowered costs during the past 20 years for this material has made it the top choice for CMM manufacturers worldwide.
“Measurement uncertainty is the expression of the statistical dispersion of the values attributed to a measured quantity. All measurements are subject to uncertainty and a measurement result is complete only when it is accompanied by a statement of the associated uncertainty, such as the stand deviation."